Slot machines and other gaming machines are a very popular form of gaming in casinos, bars, restaurants, stores, and other gaming establishments. Many slot machines and gaming machines have various access doors internally and about the outer gaming cabinet. This can include cash doors, service doors, belly doors, rear cabinet doors, and the like. Such access doors can allow varying levels of access to internal portions of the gaming machine, such as to retrieve coins or cash, service various electronic functions, and repair or update components. Different designs for gaming machines can require certain sizes, shapes, weights, and locking mechanisms for these gaming machine doors. For example, while a standard casino pedestal limits the width of most upright gaming machines to 28 inches, a narrower upright gaming machine cabinet design can be more attractive to casino operators who might desire more machines in the same amount of space. A narrower cabinet design, however, may require access doors that are not cumbersome but are still aesthetically pleasing with good locking integrity. This can result in customized changes to a door relative to existing doors and may even require new features or added components.
Standard access door designs and features can often limit the ability of a gaming machine designer. For example, lower doors that provide access to a belly region of a gaming machine are typically hinged such that they always remain attached to the gaming machine even in an open position. Where a narrower cabinet is desired though, it may be difficult to account for the space needed for standard lower door hinges. As another example, cash doors that provide access to a cash region of a gaming machine typically employ banana pin type hinges such that the door pivots about a physical pin. Such cash doors can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,605 to Mays, U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,595 to Stephenson, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,231 to Legras, for example. This standard cash door design similarly requires consideration for the existence and dimensions of the physical pin. Such considerations for standard access door designs can limit what is possible for designing cabinets and other gaming machine components if narrower cabinets are desired.
Accordingly, there is a need for various access door sizes, shapes, features, and functionalities for gaming machines having newer overall design dimensions. Although traditional access door arrangements for slots and other gaming machines have worked well in the past, improvements for the designs of these access doors are desired.